Jim Linderman blog about surface, wear, form and authenticity in self-taught art, outsider art, antique american folk art, antiques and photography. Dull tool and dim bulb were the only swear words my father ever used. Items from the Jim Linderman collection of vernacular photography, folk art, ephemera and curiosities. (Note: if anyone believes an image contained violates their rights or insults their intelligence, simply point it out and I will remove)

Quote and Credit

CLICK TO ORDER OR PREVIEW JIM LINDERMAN BOOKS

Here comes the scary part, kids. SATAN ON TANDEMS! Well, the UK had been through one tough war and the kids needed some lively entertainment. The big heads of Harringay! T. Arnold Harringay Circus performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 1952. Look at the line up...Big heads abound!

A Country Stoneware Auction c. 1940 Caption (continued on reverse) reads: "Clifton auctioneer at farm. Clifton in his warm farm clothes for auction sales. He was preferred for he knew many people by name. Wore Borcelans Hats."

BENLEE was apparently a brand of boxing equipment from the 1920s which lasted enough rounds for Rocky Marciano to endorse them in the 1950s. Today BENLEE is a trademark of Everlast. I presume they absorbed BENLEE as companies here often do. Rather than compete (like Rocky) they simply bought up the competition! Ben Lee went from champ to chump! Fite Back is a child-sized heavy bag! I can find no picture of this puny pugilist trainer online, so it must be scarce. It is about 20 inches long, and with the attached primitive "arms" slightly longer. When punched, the padded fists flail around like a real champ! Junior has to get in and out quick, or he might take one in the face. Has anyone ever seen this toy before? Circa 1940 or so is my guess. Any information would be appreciated. Could it have been a limited quantity display item to keep a boy entertained while Dad shops for boxing gloves?

I was surprised to see the phrase "henpecked" shown in online dictionaries without calling it outdated and offensive slang. Most words describing women as animals seem sexist to me, especially "cougar" which is the name of a dating site. Still with father here clenching his throat and the women in his life twice his size, they might be capable of ganging up on him a bit. Tallest female is 18 inches while dad is half that. He isn't "tied to her apron strings" which is another phrase drifting away, I think...but we also have an apron here. "Led by the nose" hardly applies, as Dad's nose is flat as a piece of plywood.

Unusual and dramatic work created by the late Lucy Robinson, African-American b. 1921, Baltimore, MD. Ms. Johnson was self-taught artistically, and she invented a form of sculptural art in which crepe paper was twisted tightly into cordage and applied to bottles, cardboard, tree branches and found objects. The work here dates to the mid 1970s. The "God is Love" globe is 1.5 feet tall, and measures some 50 inches around at the widest point. Much of her work incorporates text, abstracted human figures and design elements of her own creation. A good share of the pieces are religious. The artist passed away in 2012, and a relative asked a Baltimore woman to administer the collection. At the time of the artist's death, an exhibition was being planned, but to this day her work is shown publicly only in offices of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. These are works the artist gifted to the staff.

I acquired the works shown (top) from the Phoenix, Arizona based Nowhere to Land shop in Tucson, AZ. The bulk of the remaining work is cataloged and stored, but at the time of this post several pieces are being offered by the seller HERE. Among the available works is the enormous "Zodiac Horoscope" globe shown below:

Biographical material below was taken from the Obituary website with minor changes. It is the most complete information on the artist:Lucy Ellen Robinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland on June 22, 1921 and departed gracefully on March 4, 2012. She was the daughter of the late Arthur Raison and Alice Beal Robinson (nee Lomax). She was ninety years old. Lucy was affectionately known as "Sister" to her family, friends and everyone who knew her. born in Baltimore, Maryland in the old "South Baltimore," she grew up learning to cook and clean before she could even read. Lucy was the oldest of four children; the lat Alexander Raison, the late Jeanette Robinson, and the late Flora Mae Claiborne. Lucy attended the Baltimore City Public School System but had to leave while in high school to help out at home. this however, did not deter her from her dreams. Lucy worked several jobs while growing up but her passion was art and music. she recorded several songs in the 1070's including a Christmas son song titled, "Daddy, Please come home for Christmas." She also had numerous copyrighted poems and books. Among them were, "The Witch from Creeky Hollow," "The Roach from No Man's Land," "Yes there Is a Better way," "Christ is coming Back Again," and "If I Could end This War Today." In the early 70's while recuperating from a surgical procedure, Lucy developed her own unique form of art. She was able to create beautiful pieces of colorful crafts from recycled materials such as rocks, seashells. empty soda and glass table tops, water-cooler containers and fish tanks to name a few. She would take different shades of crepe paper, transform it into a rope like material by hand, and use her wonderful imagination to turn it into something spectacular. She taught her amazing art form at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School's Summer Arts Program until 1977. Lucy's work has been sold at numerous craft shows and flea markets throughput Maryland, but she was so generous that she gave her art away as gifts. Over the lat thirty-five years she has made and given gifts to too many people to count. Among those recipients were President and Mrs. Barack Obama, governor Martin O'Malley, the late William Donald Schafer, Oprah Winfrey, Ray Lewis, and Dr. Benjamin Carson. Her work adorns the shelves and desk of numerous offices of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Afro-American Newspaper, City Hall, and Margaret Brent Elementary School. At the time of her death, she was patiently awaiting a possible exhibition of her work at the Reginald f. Lewis Museum. Lucy continued to create her magnificent and beautiful crafts until her untimely death.

"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"

Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012

"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..."LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014

"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments."Derek Taylor Dusted

"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting."Drew Jubera Paste Magazine

"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..."Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine

"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish."Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was

"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories."William Smith Hang Fire Books

"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience"Joey Lin Anonymous Works

"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny"Could it be Madness-this?

"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..."The Hyggelic Life October 2009

"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting"Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art

"...an amazing collection..."Revel in New York October 2009

"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it."American Digest March 2010

"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."

"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday.""...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..."John Foster Accidental Mysteries

"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane."William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan

"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..."BOOKSTEVE

"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts"Spaniel Rage

"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love"Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama

"Almost an experimental narrative"Idiopath

"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11

4. It is not in any way replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image pertinent to the work referenced in the article

The copyright for some images are most likely owned by either the publisher, the writer(s) and/or artist(s) which produced them originally.

Any other uses of this image may be copyright infringement.

Although most of the images here are original photography and objects owned by the author and in the author's personal collection, we cannot absolutely guarantee the exact copyright status of the items or offer written assurance that every or any aspect of this work is completely cleared for all usages. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Any Trademarks used in this item listing are used for strictly descriptive purposes only. No association or endorsement is implied or inferred. No character or trademark ownership is given or implied.

If you are the owner of any aspect of an item which you believe to be copyrighted, please contact us immediately at j.winkel4@gmail.com